'We don't sacrifice that': The Cultivated Pig is Catapult's first restaurant residency

LAKELAND — Kevin Aydelott and Jimmy Fox are two lifelong best friends who share a vision of bringing their "live-fire cooking" to Lakeland. They're ready to turn the heat up.

Business incubator Catapult Lakeland has selected the duo's business, The Cultivated Pig, to become its first restaurant residency. Starting Jan. 17 at 11 a.m., The Cultivated Pig will be open Wednesday to Saturday, serving up lunch and dinner at Catapult's outdoor patio and an indoor seating area.

"It's not very fine dining, as I don't want to have a restaurant in that way," Aydelott, 46, said. "But the techniques, the food, the flavor and the taste are because we don't sacrifice that."

Who's behind The Cultivated Pig?

Aydelott, who has more than 15 years experience in the kitchens for Four Seasons, said he started The Cultivated Pig as a competition barbecue team with Fox looking for a hobby around 2017. The pair did a number of competitions but quickly realized it wasn't a good fit for them.

"Our food is just about taste, not all those extra rules," Fox said.

Growing up in the area of Midland, Texas, the friends said they were familiar with a barbecue style focusing heavily on crusting cuts of high-quality meat in salt and pepper and putting them out to smoke. They've put their own twist on it by adding in dry aging, smoking and some live-fire cooking techniques.

During the COVID pandemic, Aydelott said he made a decision to shift his goal with The Cultivated Pig.

"COVID put a lot of things into perspective for me," he said. "It morphed from a competition barbecue team into, 'I'm going to start a business and do it our style, the way we grew up with.'"

With Fox onboard, the duo signed up as Catapult members to have access the incubator's industrial kitchen. At various markets, they began selling high-quality meats that are dry-aged and smoked. Locals may know them from Lakeland's Downtown Farmers Curb Market or pop-up food service at various breweries, including Swan Brewery and Brew Hub in Lakeland, Grove Roots Brewing Co. in Winter Haven and Front Page Brewing Co. in Bartow.

"We call it being on tour," Fox said. "We are building a destination restaurant, that is our ultimate goal. But we have to get our name, our food out there."

Catapult's first 'resident restaurant'

The Cultivated Pig had previously taken part in events hosted by Catapult to feature some of its upcoming food service vendors at its pop-up window.

"It was a good experience for us, even if it wasn't a lot of revenue," Aydelott said. "It was a good day to flush things out, try out specials, see how different things work. I think that's what it was designed for."

Maggie Leach, Catapult's kitchen director, said not all of the incubator's food service members found it to be such a positive experience. There were a number of issues in communicating what businesses would be serving food and when.

"We were relying primarily on business owners to market that we are at the pop-up window at this time and at this location," she said. "Marketing is not many of our business owners' strength. Their strength is on making the food."

Another issue is the location of Catapult's pop-up window and outdoor patio, Leach said. It has a beautiful view overlooking Lake Mirror, but it's not clearly accessible, located at the opposite end of the building from the parking lot.

Leach said Catapult has tried several different programs with varying degrees of success for its food vendors. It tried doing one-time events. It has tried doing a series of pop-ups, back-to-back, and has tried a monthly schedule where different restaurant or food vendors serve on a specific day of the week.

"As we grew and reflected, the best way to leverage that space might be to devote that space to one member to sell consistently, to be like a restaurant that is operational several days a week," Leach said.

The Cultivated Pig will take over Catapult's kitchen space associated with the pop-up window for roughly three to five months. During this time, the business will regularly serve lunch and dinner as a full-time restaurant having indoor and outdoor seating.

The owners will meet monthly with an advisory board of experienced Lakeland restaurant owners and business owners, Leach said, to review and recommend any changes to strategy, marketing or operations.

"Our hope is they will find the rhythm of daily service and grow their staff," she said. "That they will be able to take their sales data and numbers to a local banker to get a loan, take that to a local landlord saying this is what I did at Catapult and what I believe I can do at your location."

What's on the menu?

The Cultivated Pig has expanded its menu in anticipation of a full lunch and dinner service, offering more of what it likes to say is live-fire cooking.

The owners make their own in-house rubs, with seasoning that includes more than Texas' traditional method of salt and pepper crusted barbecue.

"The ideology is still the same," Aydelott said. "We let the meat speak for itself. We don't sauce anything."

Brisket, in almost any form, is one of The Cultivated Pig's most popular dishes. It's available in several forms from a chopped brisket sandwich, a half-pound plate with two sides, purchased by the pound or a brisket chili eaten straight from a bowl or over a hot dog. One of the things that makes their brisket unique, Aydelott said is most people will spritz or pour apple cider vinegar or apple juice over their brisket. The Cultivated Pig uses a locally made Southern Red wine from Lakeridge Winery in Clermont.

"It's got a natural sweetness that does something during the cooking process," he said. "Wine and beef just go together." The business aims to bring in as much of its produce locally as possible. Aydelott said they purchase Japanese eggplants from a local farmer to make one of their most popular vegan dishes — yes, live-fire cooking is for vegans, too. The Cultivated Pig's grilled eggplant is made by putting one of these Japanese eggplants in the coals to cook, resulting in a charred outside and creamy inside, and paired with their own take on garlic hummus, mint and naan.

"We get more people who are not vegan ordering that dish," Aydelott said. On Thursdays, The Cultivated Pig will be offering its own smoked pastrami — which is the result of two to three weeks' labor of love. Aydelott said it starts with the same cut as brisket and is soaked in brine for two weeks. It's then pulled and given a rub of in-house seasoning before being smoked for 14 to 16 hours. It can be purchased straight or on The Cultivated Pig's version of a Reuben sandwich with their own sauerkraut and Lonely Island dressing, their twist on Thousand Island made using their in-house barbecue sauce.

Those interested should swing on by because the pair hates to run out of food, but it sometimes happens.

"We don’t like to sell out, as it's bittersweet," Aydelott said. "We can post on social media that we sold out, we can’t make any more money and then customers are not happy."

For those with a sweet tooth, The Cultivated Pig has partnered with Catapult member The Brewing Baker to provide a rotating menu of desserts.

Sara-Megan Walsh can be reached at swalsh@theledger.com or 863-802-7545. Follow on X @SaraWalshFl.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: The Cultivated Pig to debut as Catapult's first restaurant residency Jan. 17